After Vipul Chaudhary’s arrest, the political ambience of northern Gujarat has flared up.
Chaudhary, the former Home Minister of Gujarat and ex-Chairman of Dudhsagar Dairy, Mehsana, one of the major players in the cooperative dairy sector, detained for his alleged irregularities of around INR 500 crore was put on a 7-day remand by the District Sessions Court. Vipul Chaudhary will be on remand till September 23.
Gujarat’s assembly elections, which are just a couple months away, the state’s ambience has already started flickering up with bike rallies, protests, public meetings and demonstrations.
Earlier today, a convention was held by the Chaudhary community in Dhanera taluka’s Thavar village, where nearly 20,000 people hailing from the said community participated in support of Vipul Chaudhary.
A huge bike rally was also organised from Samarwada to Thavar.
During this convention, Mookji Chaudhary of Arbuda Sena in his alarming tone, said, “If Vipul Chaudhary is not released after the end of the remand period, then, it won’t take long to convert the double-engine-headed government into a single one.”
People posed for a photograph with Chaudhary’s cut-out and held banners and placards carrying Chaudhary’s images.
Mogaji Chaudhary, former vice-president of Dudhsagar Dairy, was also present in the convention held in support of Vipul Chaudhary. While addressing the people, he said, “The government has not sent Vipul Chaudhary to jail, but has prisoned the entire Chaudhary community. The leaders of the Chaudhary-led society give a seven-day warning for releasing Vipul Chaudhary, in negligence of which, will hold a massive protest at ‘Gandhi marg’.”
Chaudhary was held in context of an offence (C R No. 5/2022) registered at Mehsana ACB Police Station, under sections 406,409,420,465,467, 468, 471, 120(B) of IPC and sections 12, 13(1), 13(2) of Prevention of Corruption Act.
The fake companies were set up in the name of Vipul Chaudhary’s wife, son and CA.
The investigators have caught hold of various bank accounts related to these companies. Apart from the Bonus scam and fodder scam, it was revealed that Vipul Chaudhary was indulged in widespread corruption in assigning contracts to advertising agencies for publicity hoardings of Dudhsagar dairy. He was also accused of having committed financial malpractices in purchase of milk coolers for the dairy.
After registering the FIR against the accused Chaudhary, wife Geetaben and son Pawan, a separate list was prepared, which included Pawan Chaudhary’s close friends, and in-laws of Vipul. It is alleged that all of them had invested the money earned through corruption. Besides, the SIT also suspected the involvement of the Board of Directors and several other employees of Dudhsagar Dairy.
